


I really like you

by xhollys33



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Alcohol, Asexual Character, Asexual Fox Mulder, F/M, Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:41:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29984388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xhollys33/pseuds/xhollys33
Summary: Scully kisses Mulder, then Mulder kisses Scully, and this time, they make a habit out of it.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	1. Unbelievable

It was late, very late. They were digging through the papers of a suspect, a woman the walls of whose study had been lined with stacks upon stacks on paper.  
Mulder rifled through the stack of papers before him and let out a frustrated grunt, ‘there is no organisation here whatsoever, look at this,’ he held up a few pieces of paper that had been stapled together. ‘A recipe fo sautéed beef, a poem by Ginsberg, and a tax return. Unbelievable.’

Scully couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at that, but she didn’t look up.

‘What?’

‘Like you’re one to talk,’ she gestured around them, at the scattered piles of magazines, case files and tabloids that surrounded them and that had been there before they had added Ms. Redstock’s chaos to that of Mulder’s office.

‘As I’ve told you many times before,’ Mulder said, ‘there is a system to all of this.’

This time, when Scully laughed she did look up, ‘oh come on, don’t give me that crap again.’

Mulder threw up his hands, ‘it’s not crap!’

Scully turned towards Mulder, abandoning her efforts. ‘All right, prove it.’

‘What?’ Mulder also put down the papers he had been looking at, but he didn’t seem convinced.

‘You’ve been saying that ever since I’ve known you,’ Scully said, ‘come on, we won’t find anything tonight anyways.’

‘Do my ears deceive me? Is agent Scully proposing we play a game while at work?’

Scully shot him a glare but didn’t say anything.

‘Alright, what do you propose?’

Scully looked around, ‘you close your eyes and I pick something from a pile. Then, I put it back at the exact same place, and you have to be able to find it in one try.’

‘Alright,’ Mulder said, putting his hands over his eyes like a child playing hide and seek.

Scully smiled at little at the gesture and then stood up from her chair. She picked a magazine with a woman in a bikini leaning against a big pickup truck. One of the headlines said _Unexplained glowing objects found on cattle farm_. Scully shook her head slightly and put the magazine back. ‘Alright Mulder, open your eyes.’

Mulder removed his hands from his face and looked at Scully with a mischievous spark in his eyes.

‘A magazine with a woman in a bikini about unexplained glowing objects -’

‘Say no more,’ Mulder sprang up from his chair and went straight to the pile next to the trash can from which Scully had gotten magazine and pulled it free, holding it in front of him triumphantly.

‘What? You peeked!’

‘I did no such thing!’

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘Alright’, Mulder pulled a tie from his desk and bound it over his eyes. ‘Do another one.’

This time, Scully got a business card for a radio shack in Kentucky from a drawer, and again, Mulder got it straight away.

‘You heard me opening the drawer!’

‘Oh come on, Scully, you’ll even try to reason away the idea that I have a system in my own office? It’s that outlandish to you?’

Scully glared at Mulder, but there was a kind of playful glint in her eye, ‘you heard me opening the drawer.’

Mulder threw up his hands, ‘alright.’ He picked up an mp3-player with headphones and clicked some buttons.

‘What are you doing?’

Mulder smirked at Scully, ‘this way, I won’t be able to see,’ he bound the tie over his eyes again, ‘or hear you.’ He put the volume of the mp3-player up so high even Sculler could hear the music blasting.

For a split second, Scully thought what they must look like to anyone entering Mulder’s office at that moment, but it was late, and people rarely visited Mulder's office anyways. She looked around and saw something poking out from under a cabinet. When she picked it up, she saw it was a case file from seventies. She put it back and ruffled around some other piles in the room, thinking Mulder might somehow be able to sense her presence. Then, she tapped Mulder on the shoulder, causing him to remove the headphones and tie. ‘A case from 1974 in Philadelphia, three pairs of twins missing, from which one twin each was found.’

With a shit-eating grin on his face, Mulder walked over to the cabinet, stooped down and pulled out the file.

'I don't believe it! All right, you win,' Scully tried to make her voice sound indignant, but it was clear she was having fun.

‘Oh relax, I noticed the file yesterday, when I dropped my pen.’

Scully shook her head and punched Mulder playfully in the shoulder, ‘you are unbelievable, do you know that.’

‘I have been told that before.’

‘Unbelievable.’

‘Oh come on, that’s why you’ve stayed so long, my unbelievability prevents you from getting bored.’

‘Yes, that’s it. The only reason I’m here is because I don’t get bored.’

When Mulder didn’t reply, she punched him in the shoulder again, less forcefully this time, ‘it’s not just because of that. I think you’re a great agent, I like you Mulder.’

It was the look of surprise on Mulder’s face that made Scully do it. She leaned down and kissed Mulder. The look of surprise on Mulder’s face turned into shock. When Scully didn’t feel Mulder responding, she pulled away, seeming to realise what she was doing. ‘God, Mulder, I’m sorry,’ she raked her hands through her hair, ‘I don’t know why I just did that.’

Mulder blinked, seeming to recover from his shock.

‘It’s probably sleep deprivation,’ Scully checked her watch, ‘god, it’s already past three. I’d better get home.’ Scully got her coat and bag and left before Mulder could say a word.


	2. I really like you

They had agreed to meet for breakfast the next day at a local diner. Scully already had her hands wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee when Mulder arrived. 

‘Did you already order?’ Mulder sat down in the booth opposite Scully, opening the menu.

‘No,’ Scully sounded like she wanted so say something else, but Mulder cut her off.

‘So, I went through most of Redstock’s things last night, and there wasn’t really anything useful there.’

A waitress came to take their offer, and before Scully could get a word in when she left, Mulder continued, ‘I did notice one thing though, this guy, Thomas Riley, he turns up a lot. I pulled his -’

‘Mulder,’ Scully interrupted him, ‘we need to talk about yesterday, because if we don’t it’ll just be awkward and hang over us.’

Mulder sighed, ‘listen, Scully, it’s okay, we were tired, we got caught up in the moment.’

It was only her who had done anything, Scully thought, but she didn't say anything. ‘Right, it didn’t mean anything.’

‘Right.’

‘And I’m sorry.’

‘It’s alright, nothing to be sorry for.’

‘Alright, good, so this guy, Riley, what did you want to say?’

***

It was Scully’s birthday about a month later. Mulder didn’t say anything as they were working a case, but Scully didn’t expect him to. She had a dinner party planned with a few friends later in the evening and she was really looking forward to it. 

They were on their way out of the bureau, to their cars when Mulder pulled Scully over to his car. ‘Wait here a second,’ he rummaged through his glove compartment and pulled out a small package with a card taped to it. ‘Happy birthday, Scully.’

Scully looked surprised, ‘thanks, Mulder, you didn’t have to.’

Mulder smiled, ‘you really thought I had forgotten? When have I ever been known to skip a birthday.’ He gave Scully a peck on her cheek, stepped in his car, and drove off, leaving her standing perplexed in the parking garage.

***

Scully went on vacation, much to Mulder’s dismay. Three weeks, he didn’t understand how she could do it. While he did appreciate the freedom her absence provided at first, he quickly discovered that in absence of the real Scully, there was a voice in his head that sounded a lot like her and followed the same type of reasoning, questioning his theories.   
Because it was in his head, however, it was a lot harder to argue with this Scully and even more difficult to get away from it. So, Mulder was quite happy when Scully returned, good humoured and looking rested, although Mulder hadn’t noticed she had seemed tired before.

‘You seem extraordinarily happy today,’ Scully remarked as they were sitting in a car parked a few houses down from a suspect’s house.

‘Well, of course I am, now that you’re back, agent Scully,’ Mulder said in such a tone that Scully wasn’t sure he was sincere. She decided to pretend he was.

‘It’s good to be back.’

‘I’m getting us some coffee,’ Mulder stepped out of the car and ten turned back, ‘you wanna tell me all about the magic of Michigan tonight? I hear they have some great steak a few blocks from here.’

‘Alright,’ Scully agreed.

The steak really was good. 

They had steak and a bottle of wine and then Mulder ordered beer and Scully ordered whiskey. 

Scully told Mulder about Michigan, where she had visited old friends from college, and she was surprised how attentive Mulder was to the stories about her friend Eve’s dog. When he had suggested the dinner, she had expected him to quickly turn the conversation to the theories he had cooked up during the last three weeks. When she mentioned Eve’s recent breakup, Mulder asked whether she was seeing anyone. She said she wasn’t. He ordered another beer and asked about what had happened to Eve’s ex’s favourite pair of jeans.

They were both quite tipsy when they left the restaurant. Not drunk, but Mulder’s cheeks were unusually red, and Scully felt warmer than she normally would in weather this cold. The car was parked a few blocks down, and they didn’t say anything while walking there. 

Mulder had the keys, but he didn’t unlock the car when they reached it. Instead, he turned to Scully. ‘I missed you,’ he said, and then he kissed her.

Mulder felt warm against Scully’s lips and it was a short kiss, but it was a nice kiss nonetheless, Scully thought.

Then, Mulder, unlocked the car, but he didn’t get in. ‘Oh, who am I kidding, I can’t drive. Are you okay to drive?’ He turned back to Scully again.

‘What just happened?’

‘I kissed you.’

‘Yes, you did.’

‘I’m sorry, shouldn’t I have?’

‘No, it was quite nice.’

‘Good, are you okay to drive Scully?’

Scully blinked a few times, surprised by how casually Mulder was handling compared to the time Scully had kissed him and he had been frozen in shock. ‘No I don’t think I am.’

‘Alright, I’ll call a cab.’

It was mostly Mulder who talked on the cab-ride to the motel, while Scully decided what she was going to do. Of course, her friends had asked about Mulder, and she liked him. It would be easy, but also very complicated.

When they were standing in front of their motel rooms, Scully said goodnight, kissed Mulder, and then shut the door behind her.

The next morning, Scully decided she wasn’t going to ask Mulder about it. So they didn’t talk about it. Not until they were hauled up in the local university library late at night, and Mulder kissed her again. Well, they didn’t talk about it then either, really. It was a kiss like the night before, short, nice, and comforting.

They kissed again in front of their motel rooms, before heading off to sleep in separate beds. It continued like that. They would work regularly during the day, and then some nights, Mulder would kiss Scully. Scully was surprised herself how much she liked it, not just the kissing Mulder, but also that she didn’t mind that they didn’t talk about it. She wasn’t sure what would happen when they returned to DC, but Mulder continued kissing her there as well, although with less frequency, as they both had lives that kept them occupied in DC. Then, Scully started kissing Mulder as well. Scully found that she could only describe it as nice, in the nicest sense of the word. 

***

They were on a case in a town near New York and had just been to dinner. Scully kissed Mulder outside their motel room doors and asked whether he wanted to come in. She had of course noticed how they only ever stayed to kissing, but she thought she understood why, as anything else would make everything that much more complicating.   
When Mulder visibly hesitated for a moment, she expected him to decline, and she thought it would’ve probably been the wise choice. 

He did come inside, however. Inside, he sat down at the desk, swivelling the desk chair around so he faced Scully. Scully had not expected him to that, and she expected what he said next even less.

‘We need to talk about this, Scully.’

Scully was surprised because before, Mulder had been the one to shrug off her attempts to talk about it. ‘Alright.’

‘I really like you,’ Mulder began, and Scully could already hear the rest of the sentence in her head. _I really like you, but it would be too complicated, the people at the bureau wouldn’t like it_. Although Scully agreed with the imaginary Mulder in her head, she was also surprised to feel her heart ache at the thought. Maybe this was less casual for her than she thought.

‘I agree,’ Scully said, quickly, surprising herself by wanting to say it first.

‘Agree with what?’ Mulder looked confused.

‘It would be too complicated,’ Scully said, ‘if we were in a relationship, I agree it would be complicated.’

‘Oh,’ Mulder sounded taken aback. ‘Alright, if you feel that way, we’ll just go back to being partners. In the FBI I mean - FBI partners. I never meant to force anything on you, Scully, I realise I should have asked you sooner, I’m sorry.’

Scully’s heart felt like it was tearing itself apart. ‘No, I liked it. I did.’

‘Okay.’ Mulder looked at his hands, seemingly gathering his courage, ‘I wanted to tell you something, and I guess it doesn’t really matter now anyways, but I prepared myself to say it, so I’m gonna do it anyway. I’m asexual, Scully.' He added, 'so I guess it’s better if we just get back normal anyhow.’

‘That’s what you wanted to talk about?’ Scully asked, while her heart felt like it was melting together and aching again, but in a good way, this time. ‘Oh, Mulder. Thank you for telling me.’

They stayed still for some time, Scully standing in the middle of the room and Mulder staring at his hands.

‘So you didn’t want to stop?’ Scully asked, breaking the silence.

‘No, not really,’ Mulder said. ‘I understand though, if you think it’s too complicated. It won’t be awkward, I promise,’ he looked up at Scully, and the sincerity in his eyes warmed her heart.

‘I think it’s worth the complication.’

‘I won’t change my mind, you know,’ Mulder said, ‘I won’t develop sexual attraction, and I understand if you need that in a relationship.’

Scully walked over to stand in front of Mulder, grabbed his chin lightly and tilted his head up. ‘I don’t need you to have sex Mulder, if you don’t want that. I’m old enough to satisfy myself.’

Mulder smiled, ‘I really like you.’

Scully leaned down to him, ‘I really really like you too.’

They kissed like that, Scully standing in front of Mulder, who was sitting in the desk chair, his head tilted up, and in that moment, Scully felt the happiest she had been in quite some time.


End file.
